Pump.



.' WMM@ E. L'FEENY.

PUMP.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 4, I9II.

Patented July 25, 1916.

STATESA PATE l" yr rricn."

EDT/[UND J'. FEENY, OF MUNCIE, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR T0 THE FEENY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, 0F MUNCIE, INDIANA, A CORPORATION 0F INDIANA.

PUMP.

Application filed May 4, 1911.

To @ZZ Iifi/tom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, EDMUND J. FEENY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Muncie, in the county of Delaware and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pumps, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates more particularly to double action fluid pumps, and is more particularly described as a device of this character which is adapted for use in connection with pneumatic or what is commonly known as vacuum cleaners, but which may have a more general application.

rihe principal object of the invention is to provide a device of this character which is simple in opei'ation, economical to construct, and effective and efficient in operation.

Another object is to provide a pump in which the cylinder and the piston members are relatively reciprocable.

A further object is to provide means entirely within the cylinder automatically to effect a change of the valves which control the supply and discharge openings of the pump.

A further object is to provide means operated by the relative movement of the piston and cylinder whereby the valves which control the supply and discharge of fluid are automatically changed in accordance with' the relative movement.

A still further object is to provide a pump of this character in which the piston is provided with admission and discharge passages which communicates with the lateral and peripheral. faces of the piston respectively.

For the attainment of these ends and the accomplishment of other new and useful objects, my invention consists in the features of novelty in the construction, combination and arrangement of the parts generally shown in the drawing and described in the specification, but more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying` drawingnFigure l is a cross sectional view showing the preferred embodiment of my invention with the piston at' one end of the cylinder. Fig 2 is a view on the line 2--2 of Fig. l, with parts cut away to show the construction more clearly. Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view on the line 3 3, Fig. l.

In the manufacture of a certain type of Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 25, 1916.

serial No. 625,060.

pneumatic cleaner in which it is necessary to secure a vacuum condition upon the subject to be cleaned by pump action operated manually, the volume of air thus moved is of the utmost importance. To secure the requisite volume movement by a vacuum means, and at the same time render the device capable of being operated within the practicable limits of the strength of the average woman, it is manifest that the least Vpossible weight of construction must co-act ywithtli'e minimum of mechanical friction, `and it is the aim of this device to produce this desired result in the inost eflicient manner. A thin sheet metal material shaped into tubular form must be utilized to give Y comparatively large cylinder, so that it may be at once light andstrong. The packing of the piston to operate in suoli a cylinder must not only be capable of thoroughly producing an air tight joint requisite for the pumping action of such piston, but at the saine time must offer a minimumk frictional resistance to movement, so as to be within the capacity of the average womans strength. Such a packing must be adapted sidered, it is not desired to confine the invention to the particular material which has thus far been found most suitable for the purpose, to wit, sponge rubber.

It is evident that whatever material is employed must possess to a high degree the inherent qualities of resilience, notl only in one direction, but in several directions, and also the capacity for compression and for tensile strength combined with expansion. In practice it has been found preferable to form this packing material into the shape of a ring, to be fitted loosely in a groove on the periphery of the piston, whereby there will be added to the atomic resilience of the particles of the material the additional elasticity of the mass of the ring due to its tendi .be an additional force tending to move the particles of this ring when the piste-n and ring are put in motion by the manual operation of the device, because the pumping action then produced will effect a suction on one side and a'pressurev on the other which will tend to move the ring to one side or the other of the groove as this operation con- Atinues,`and inasmuch as there is in the other force of the tendency for the ring to straighten itself moving such ring outwardly to the inner surface of the cylinder,

lthere will thus be a resultant action which` tends to crowd a small portion (or what might be termed a corner) of the ring into air tight contact with the inner surface of the cylinder, while the remainder of the ring will bear comparatively lightly on this inner surface of the cylinder, and hence the frictional area in air tight contact will be comparatively small while very efficient, and thus this small surface of piston and cylinder in air tight contact will minimize the requisite strength needed to move these parts upon each other, as the weight of materials will not be such as to unduly add to the human effort required.'

Referring to the drawings, especially to Fig. 1, it will be seen how the ring in the downward movement of the piston has been crowded upward, leaving a space between its lower edge and the lower flange of the piston, while its upper edge is 1n air tight contact with the inner surface of the top flange of the piston, and particularly with that portion of the inner surface of the cylinder adjacent to that particular corner, this effect being produced in the manner above described by the resultant action of the several forces. Not only does this minimize the human effort required to operate it, but more particularly is the construction capable of causing the material of the ring to follow closely the inequalities of the inner surface of such cylinder, whether those inequalities are due to the cylinder plates being out of round or to the inequalities of the interior y surface, or to the varying angular relation of the piston plates to the cylinder, whether the piston is tight on its rod at one angle or another, or whether it has some degree of play on such rod, for in each case the packing will overcome the variation and properly fill up the space so as to make an air tight joint. It will be seen that the crowding of this material having the capacities before described into the corner as illustrated in the drawing, or the reverse corner in the opposite movement of the piston, will necessarily make a most perfectly yair tight connection at this point, and at the same material and small surface engaged, permit easy movement over the inequalities, and thus positively minimize frictional resistance. Of course this resilient ring is not only fitted loosely in the piston at its sides, but should have some little freedom of movement in the direction of the axis of the piston. In other words, the depth of the recess in which the elastic member is placed is considerably greater than the thickness of such member,y and whether this additional space is filled with air or with any other material permitting movement of the ring, is immaterial to the essence of the invention.

ln practice it is preferred to cut the ring into'a straight strip of material, and then bend it into required shape so as to cause its two free ends t abut and then, as before described, owing to the natural tendency of this circular bandto straighten out, there will be a .pressure between its surface and the inner surface of the cylinder, tending in the manner before described to assist in making the air tight connection. As before suggested, sponge rubber is the best material which has been thus far discovered for this purpose, but it is obvious that other elastic materials will accomplish the result desiredv out departing from the principle of the invention so long as the packing ring has the qualities of resilience and the construction is such as to permit freedom of movement of such ring, both toward and from its axis and also from side to side in the groove with provision fo-r permitting the suction action of operation on this ring to assist in its movement.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, acylinder is adapted to receive a piston member 11, which is freely movable in the cylinder. This piston memberll is mounted upon a hub 12, which is provided with a shoulder 13, between which and the piston member 11 a flexible valve member 14: is mounted. r;l`he piston member 11 is secured on the hub in any suitablefmanner, and in the preferred embodiment it is shown as being secured by a threaded member 15. Between this threaded member 15 and the piston member 11 a flexible valve member 1G is preferably secured,the function of the valve members 14, 16, being'hereinafter set forth. The hub member 12 is formed with Va partition 17 which separates openings 18 and 19. These openings are threaded to receive tubes 20 'and 21. .The periphery of the piston member 11 is formed with a groove 22 in which a packing ring 23 is movable with respect tothe piston, the ring being adapted to vengage the inside of the cylinder 10 and to close the peripheral openmiV ing made between the piston 11 and the cylinder l0 when the packing ring is in engagement with either flange of the said groove. The piston is provided with passages 24E which afford communication between the end of one of the tubes, as 2l and the peripheral groove 22; with passages 25 through the piston intermediate the openings 2i; and with passages 26 which communicate with the passages 25 and the end of' the other tube 20. In making the passages 26, a hole is drilled from the peripheral groove 22 to the opening 18 through the passage 25, the portion of the passage from the groove 22 to the passage 25 being thereafter closed or stopped by the plug 27.

The groove 22 is wider than the packing ring 23, so that when the ring engages one flange of the groove, the chamber of the cylinder adjacent the other flange is in communication with the openings 24 around the flange and through the groove 22 under the packing 23, while the cylindrical chamber' on the other side of the piston is closed from suoli communication by means of the packing ring. Since the packing ring engages the inner face of the cylinder 10, it is evident that the movement of the piston relative to the cylinder will effect the change in position of' the packing ring in accordance with the direction of relative movement in such a manner that the chamber on one side of the piston will be in communication with the piston tube 21 through the passage 24k' and the cylinder chamber on the other side of the piston will be closed from such communication.

Valve members 14 and 16 are composed of' any suitable material, and are adapted to open and close the passages 25 in accordance with the movement of the piston, the suction in one chamber being suflicient to cause the valve member for that chamber to open communication to the passage 25, and the pressure in the other chamber being suflicient to close the valve member for that chamber over the opening 25. In this manner the admission of fluid through the passage 25 is automatically controlled by the direction of motion of the piston with respect to the cylinder. Suitable packing members are provided between the cylinder 10 and the tubes 20, 21, a preferred form being shown in Fig. 1, in which a threaded member 28 secured to the cylinder 10 is adapted to receive a threaded member 29, suitable packing 30 being introduced therebetween.

In order that the operation of my invention may be more readily understood, the paths taken by the Huid to and from the cylindrical chambers will now be described, reference being had to Fig. 1. Assuming that the relative direction of the piston with rin@ is brouOht a 'ainst the lower flan e and fiuid will be admitted to the discharge from the upper chamber, while the valve member 16 will be closed and the valve member 1% will open the passages 25 to discharge fluid from the suction tube 20 to the lower cha-mber. Thus it is evident that in either direction of motion the lower tube 20 is the suction or inlet tube, and the tube 21 is the discharge or outlet tube, regardless of the direction of relative movement between the piston and the cylinder.

It is evident from this construction that this device is adapted to draw in a fluid, either liquid or gas, through one tube and to discharge the same continuously through the other tube. Although this general application may be made, this pump is particularly adapted to be used in connection with pneumatic devices such as vacuum cleaners, for the reason that the piston and the cylinder may be relatively moved with respect to each other, to produce a continuous suction and discharge. That is to say, one of' the tubes is the inlet tube and the other is the discharge tube for both directions of relative movement and as long as relative movement is imparted to the piston, and cylindrical members, there will be continuous suction and discharge from the respective tubes. It will also be seen that the material pumped aids in pressing the packing ring against the Harige of the groove, and that the valve members are also pressed against the faces of the piston to close the openings through the piston by the pressure of the fluid. It is furthermore evident that the packing ring' 23 exercises a double valve function in that it closes one chamber from the exhaust or discharge opening and opens the other chamber to the exhaust or outlet with each relative movement of the members 10 and 11.

The construction of the piston and piston tubes is, in effect, a single tube with a partition in it around which a piston member is secured and with openings through the tube on either' side of the partition to communicate with passages in the piston. From the construction it is obvious that the piston is freely rotatable with respect to the cylinder, and that the valve action is in n0 way impaired by such rotation.

` While I have thus specifically described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is evident that others may make various changes in the construction, combination and arrangement of the several parts without departing from the spirit and scope of e the invention. f

What I claim is l. The combination with a cylinder, of a piston movable therein and provided with a packing of sponge rubber loosely mounted in the periphery of such piston, and provided ywith an air inlet communicating'from the outside of such piston to the ,edges of such packing.

2. The combination with a cylinder'of al piston provided with a recess in its periph* ery, a sponge rubber packing ring, the recess beingdeeper than the thickness of the ring and wider than thewidth of such ring, and communicating passages through the piston to the edges of such packing ring whereby the suction in the operating of the piston will Yassist in a Vcompression of the packing ring.

3. The combination with a cylinder of a piston provided with a sponge rubber ring mounted in its periphery.

4c. A pump comprising a tubular stem having non-communicating inlet and discharge portions, a piston of greater diameter than the stem with a circumferential groove therein, valved passages leading from the. inlet portionv of the stem to the opposite faces of the piston, and a passage leading from the circumferential groove to the discharge portion of the stem, a cylinder` of greater diameter than the piston encom* passing said piston and provided at its end with packing glands slidably engaging the v tubular stem, and a packing arranged within j i Copies of this patent may be obtained for groove therein, and valved passages leading from the inlet portion ofthe stemto the opposite faces of the piston and a passage leading from the circumferential groove to the discharge portion of the stem, a cylinder of greater diameter than the piston encompassing said piston and provided at its ends with packing glands slidably engaging the tubular stem, and a packing arranged within the circumferential groove of the piston and engaging the interior of the cylinder, said packing being a strip of sheet sponge rubber of less width than the width of said groove, and of a length exceeding the internal perimeter of the cylinder.

6. A pump comprising a tubular stem having non-oo1nmunicating inlet and discharge portions, a piston of greater diameter than the stem with a circumferential groove therein, and valved passages leading from the inlet portion of the stem to the opposite faces of the piston, and a passage leading from the circumferential groove to the discharge portion of the stem, a cylinder of greater diameter than the piston encompassing said piston and providedy at its ends with packing glands slidably engaging the tubular stem, and a packing arranged within the circumferential groove of the piston and engaging the interior of the cylinder, said packing being a ring of sponge rubber, of less width than the groove, mounted in said groove and of a normal diameter exceeding the diameter of the cylinder.

7. A pump comprising a piston and, a cylinder encompassing the same, one being axially reciprocable relative to the other andV the piston having a diameter appreciably lessthan that of the cylinder and also having a circumferential groove, and a ring of sponge rubber mounted in said groove within the cylinder and under circumferential compression due to engagement with the cylinder.

In testimony whereof VI have signed my name to this specification in the presence of three subscribing witnesses, on this 28th day of April A. D. 1911.

EDMUND J. VFEENY.

IVitnesses: f

n MILDRED BOOTH,

MYRON H. GRAY, A. C. SILVERBURG.

ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

